Found a Photographer

It's been a little difficult finding a photographer for the wedding. I have been looking at all kinds of photographers and on their websites and I found a few that I really liked. The only thing was the cost. My favorite ones that had the kind of style I was looking for had packages starting at $3,000 and up from there. I decided early on in my wedding planning that I wanted to spend $2,500 maximum for my photographer.

I contacted one photographer that I really liked who is located in D.C. and actually did the photography at my older sister's wedding, Diana. I really liked his style and even though his price had gone up since he did my sister's wedding, I was willing to talk to him and figure out a good price. But after 2 emails and one phone call where I left a voicemail (because no one answered) and had given all my information and then never hearing back from him after two weeks, I decided to look elsewhere. I looked into a photographer literally down the street from where we live who was recommended by David's mom, my future mother-in-law.

It's Lee Wedding Studio and when I arrived I thought I would be meeting a woman but it turned out to be a man and he was really nice. He is vietnamese and not only is he a photographer he also has a typewriter, printer, fax machine repair and sale business. I thought that was pretty cool. He knows the business and he presented me with all the wedding packages he has available and told me that for the number 2 wedding package I could receive two photographers, 12 hours of service, 200 printed copies of the best photos, DVD copy of those photos, 30 page photo album, and a 24 x 30 photo with frame. I would receive all of this for under my budget. $2,130 for all of it. 

I was like "Wow, that's a deal!" Under budget and it has everything I want. Here is an example of his photography style.

He has an elegant style and according to a friend of my future mother-in-law's he is a real perfectionist. I am happy with this choice :)

I have another Nephew!!

Welcome to the world baby Archer :) 

 

DOB 12.09.2013 @ 6:11 pm - Congratulations New Mom Buzzie!!

Colors and Decor

These colors are not exact but what I was thinking for reception decor was having autumn orange table cloths with sangria/wine colored napkins. Basically purple over orange.

For the centerpieces I just want a few mason jars filled with berry twigs, grains and maybe a single golden flower mixed in somewhere. Ignore the box because that is not included in my idea but I liked the colors these mason jars were painted.

I got this idea off line about creative ways to display your table seating chart. Since I am going for a Rustic theme I wanted to do my table seating chart on an old window and either write the names myself on glass or print out the names on paper and attach them to each window pane. There is more then one way to display it but I think this is really cute/creative and it goes with the theme.

These are some wedding favors/thank you cards I thought were super cute and I kinda wanted to incorporate them into my wedding program. I really like that tree design and since there is a giant oak tree in front of the plantation house where our venue is, it just seems perfect, like a bow to the venue (which is gorgeous).

These flowers are not exact either but just to give an idea of what I have in mind. I really wanted orange and gold/yellow flowers with purple berries mixed in for my bridesmaids bouquets. My bouquet will probably have some red thrown in there as well. I just don't want any light flowers in there, just pure fall colors with berries to accent the bridesmaids dresses which will be sangria colored which is like a wine purple but a little bit more bright and lively. 

At our venue there is a gazebo where we will be exchanging our vows. The picture is not the exact gazebo but it is the same style. What I have in mind for flower arrangements on the gazebo is just a few green vines with some golden flowers, some grains and other random fall foliages scattered in there. Nothing too extravagent, just simple.

So these are just some ideas I have. I really like them. I'll have to find a florist next after I secure a photographer. Step by step we're getting there.

Revealing my Bridesmaids

So I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving to tell my girl friends that I wanted to ask them to be bridesmaids. I had this idea that I wanted to send each one a little card that simply stated "will you be a bridesmaid?" and do the same for my maid of honor.

I have 7 total bridesmaids and each bridesmaid is very special in my life. I decided to ask my younger sister Anya to be my maid of honor because we were really close growing up and we are close in age so we had this special bond with one another and I couldn't think of a better person for the role. I decided to ask my older sister Diana to be my matron of honor because she is already married but she is my other sister.  I only have two sisters and I wanted both to be involved in my wedding in a big way.

I asked Dorsa to be one or my bridesmaids because she a third sister to me. I asked Harmony to be a bridesmaid because she's a great friend and we have a lot of fun and laughs together. I asked Laurene and Johanna also because they've always been there for me and they're both very sweet and they're old friends from high school years and college years. The last person I asked was Becky and she is Bryan's girlfriend (who is David's Best Man). She is super cool and the times we have hung out together she has been really cool and genuine so I wanted her to be a part of my wedding as well :)

These are the cards I sent to each girl (although my sisters already knew they were bridesmaids) so they could get a nice note in the mail and find out that I wanted them to part of my special day.

 

Just a fun little idea I found off of etsy. I'm in love with etsy right now. It has been giving me some great ides for my wedding. There are some crafty ideas for centerpieces and wedding favors and thank you notes...it's my new addiction.

I will write another post about some color and decor ideas I have decided on for my wedding.

Yaaaay!!

11.12.13

It's 11.12.13 and it is coooold. Like winter just decided to show up over night or something and now it's coooold - Brrrrrrrrrrr where are my fuzzy slippers?!

We have decided to have a photo booth at our wedding and it's Pic-stache-O :)

They're the same photo booth that Lej and Hyo had at their wedding - those guys were awesome and I knew I wanted to have them at our wedding! I loved the props, the booth, the unlimited amounts of photo copies, and the silliness that is had no matter what!

Here are the creators of Pic-stache-O - Seth and Danny

I have some ideas for a theme of our wedding and that will be revealed at a later date :) It's the theme I want to use for our "save the dates", wedding invitations, and wedding day programs. I think it suits both our personalities quite nicely.

Anywho, I just wanted to write a post on this particular day because of the date - apparently most people get married on days like this because of how "unique" they are. Same as people wanting to get married on 08.08.08 or 11.11.11 or 09.10.11 or 06.05.04 and so on...

Well 10.18.14 might not be such a "unique" date but it's all even numbers, which I like :)

This is the Venue!!

 

So Sunset Crest Manor ended up being way out of our price range. It is a beautiful venue - bridal suite, gorgeous views of the hills and trees, and a great reception area. But we're not exactly rolling in the dough so we needed something just as beautiful but for an affordable price.

While I was at work a co-worker of mine suggested this place called Rock Hill Plantation House. It's in Stafford Virginia and it's owners, Jo Anne and Will have been living there for almost 9 years and having weddings there since 2005. They're really kind people and very friendly and inviting, I was taken right from the start.

I won't say too much because the pictures can do the talking and it leaves a little bit of mystery for everyone else. But to cut to the chase....

....We picked our venue and we have officially Set A Date! Our wedding will be on Saturday, October 18th, 2014 at Rock Hill Plantation House. David and I are really excited and we're really happy with our venue choice.

:) :) :)

Setting a Date and Finding a Venue

Let the wedding planning begin. It's really exciting being at this phase in my life :) I always knew I wanted to get married but I never thought about the kind of wedding I wanted to have. I think ever since I visited a vineyard three or four years ago I was inspired by the look and the feel that was a vineyard. Rolling hills, wine stalks shaking in the wind, blue skies, gorgeous buildings, and wine glasses and barrels everywhere!!

I imagined myself and my future husband standing on a hill with beautiful country hills rolling in the distance and the sunshine so bright and skies clear and all our friends and family smiling at us. That was what I pictured in my mind. Then I met David...

Haha and he completed the picture just perfectly :) Duhh!

I told him the kind of wedding I imagined - country feel, outdoors, beautiful amenities. Lucky for me he liked my vision and was very excited to start looking at venues that I had set appointments to go see (before we were engaged - because I am crazy!). Back in July, I asked David what time of year does he like for a wedding because I knew I liked April and was thinking I wanted to try for an April wedding. Then I felt like I needed to be fair and ask David what time year he liked, because it is his wedding too. He tells me he really likes October because the weather is perfect, not too warm, not too cold, the colors are beautiful, the skies are clear...So of course I had to agree, can't argue with those points. I told him how about first week in October since my older sister and her husband got married end of October. He agreed. In that moment I calculated the date in my mind and realized it would be October 4th, 2014. But we could set a date once we booked a venue.

That was the first step on a long list of steps we were getting ready to face :)

First venue we looked at was Raspberry Plains. A very beautiful estate surrounded by open fields and rolling hills off in the distance. It had a gorgeous garden with a couple fountains and wavy vertical shaped bushes that came to a point at the top. It was stunning! The venue coordinator was great too, very nice and helpful. I loved it. David did not. To find the venue we had to drive through a developing neighborhood. Houses were being built around about 100 yards away from the space and it was expensive. So we moved on to the next venue.

Second venue we saw was Sunset Crest Manor. This place made an impression on David right from the start. Just driving up to it David's jaw dropped. He immediately said to me "Oh we have to do it here, this is awesome Bubby!" I was impressed by the look of it too :) We weren't able to get the full tour of the place however because there was a bridal party already showing up and getting ready for their big day so we were only shown the outside (which was gorgeous enough to make me love it either way).

Gorgeous, right?

So needless to say the venue coordinator who is also the President and Resident of the manor told us to come back and he would be happy to give us the full tour. So we went back the following weekend and we loved it even more the second time around :)

Look at how happy he is :)

After we saw the venue for the first time David decided that he wanted to do a mid October date because first week in October can be too warm. So we settled on October 18th. Only problem was that date was already booked. So we pushed it back to November 1st.

So we are going back this coming Saturday and we are going to sign the contract for this venue. The date we have set is November 1st, 2014 - which is also All Saints Day. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself :)

So that is how the Bubbies did with the picking out of the venue shiz. Boom!

Stay tuned because we're only getting started. Weeeeeeee

I'm Engaged!!

Proposal spot

the ring

happy :)

enough said. time to plan our wedding. for the next year I will be posting nothing but wedding planning upates. and of course any trips or fun activities that are had along the way :)

San Francisco, CA

Great city, beautiful tours, good food, friendly people, gorgeous weather, mrs. campbell's birthday, Redskins finally won, got engaged, it was a fantastic trip...more to come on the engagement to my best friend David :)

Redskins vs. Lions

So the Lions beat the Redskins at home two weeks ago. Very disappointing but it was also Hyojon's first NFL game. He had never been to an NFL game before so we were all excited for him to experience the game :)

As David would put it "So many funses!!!" Hopefully the Redskins pull it together for a win because we could use one!!

OBX, NC

We celebrated Diana's 30th Birthday in Outer Banks, NC. I took a ton of pictures but my computer does not want to upload them so these are the ones from my cell phone that are my favorite :)

Happy Birthday Diana!!

It was a great weekend :) I am looking forward to another trip down there. I think instead of one weekend we'll spend an entire week there because there's a lot to do and explore down there. The boys did fishing, and crab fishing and boogey boarding. There was good food too! And check out that sunset on the ocean. It was beautiful!